History Today

Women, Food and Politics 1880 - 1930

'The bread and butter of life' - Martin Pugh traces how the increasing electoral importance of food and domestic issues in Britain helped to entrench women in the mainstream of political life.

Prisoners in the English Civil War

Barbara Donagan discusses the variable treatment of captives by captors between Crown and Parliament and what light it sheds on the manners and mores of the times.

Gin and Georgian London

The production of gin was actively encouraged in Britain during the Restoration period, but its increasing grip on the London poor had disastrous effects for the following century. Thomas Maples examines the gin problem and what it took to stem the flow.

Fill It In or Open It Up

Tony Aldous examines the tensions over digging and conserving in historic town centres such as Lincoln.

Garrow for the Defence

Until the late 18th century, few criminal defendants thought it worthwhile to engage a lawyer on their behalf; but in the 1780s things suddenly changed. John Beattie looks at the part William Garrow, a brilliant young defence lawyer, played in altering the course of justice.